


Anything But Empty

by magicianlogician12



Series: Heart of Steel [9]
Category: Fallout 4
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-23
Updated: 2016-04-23
Packaged: 2018-06-03 22:47:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,298
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6630085
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/magicianlogician12/pseuds/magicianlogician12
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Tabitha has something important to say after leaving the Institute for good. Haylen is pleasantly surprised. (Sequel to The Distance Between)</p>
            </blockquote>





	Anything But Empty

Haylen had been practically camped out by the radio aboard the Prydwen ever since Tabi had reported that she’d been kicked out of the Institute, nearly twelve hours ago. News had spread rapidly around the airship–and Haylen had told the Elder himself–that Tabi would be coming with news. Everyone was on edge during their patrols, and while it was difficult to tell while the knights were encased in power armor, Haylen thought they all seemed to be holding their weapons just a little tighter.

If Tabi had been compromised, after all, it meant the Institute couldn’t be far behind. Still, Haylen felt that if the Institute really was planning a major offensive, that would have been the first thing she mentioned–that sort of news was of such importance that it didn’t need to be delivered in person to be believed.

“Scribe Haylen?” a senior scribe got Haylen’s attention. “Paladin Harte’s vertibird is on approach. She’s going to give her report to the elder, then both of you will be returning to the recon outpost in Cambridge. You’re instructed to gather what you need for the trip.”

Inwardly, Haylen’s gut sank. It would be even longer before she’d get to speak with Tabi, then. Trying not to let her disappointment show, Haylen replied, “Understood. I’ll begin preparing for the journey.”

Aboard the Prydwen, Haylen didn’t have many belongings–what she had fit easily in the crate at the foot of her assigned cot, with room to spare. Finding that it would be easier to simply carry the crate back down to Cambridge than try to hold all the things contained within, Haylen struggled to get her arms around both ends. A voice as familiar as her own interrupted her struggles.

“Need some help with that, Scribe Haylen?”

Haylen nearly deflated with relief. “Paladin Harte. I’m glad to see you returned from your mission unscathed.”

“ _Relatively_ unscathed.” Tabi had her helmet on, so it was impossible to see her expression, but Haylen thought she was moving just a little more stiffly than normal. “Mass Fusion took a lot out of me, and the Institute wasn’t feeling particularly altruistic towards me after that.”

Haylen froze. “Were you hit?” After the near-tragic accident that had delayed Tabi’s mission to find Danse, Haylen worried even more about her safety out in the Commonwealth.

But Tabi was already waving her hand dismissively. “The armor took the hits–I only got a few bad bruises, at worst. Doesn’t mean I’ve enjoyed walking around with them for over a day. Now do you want help with that crate? I’m probably better equipped to carry it.”

Haylen stepped away to give Tabi room. “I’d appreciate it.”

Easily picking up Haylen’s crate as though only feathers were contained inside, the two began their walk to the flight deck. Every step was filled with silence, with words that both of them wanted to say but couldn’t, not here.

On the ride down to Cambridge, Tabi stood near the vertibird’s minigun, but not holding it in a firing position. As they passed over the ruins of C.I.T., Haylen heard her sigh.

As they arrived, Tabi took Haylen’s crate and walked down the steps easily, her suit hissing with hydraulics as she moved. “Where do you want this?” she asked when they made it to the ground floor. Haylen pointed at a spot in the corner that didn’t get much foot traffic, and without comment, Tabi set the crate down before heading downstairs, where the station’s power armor rack sat.

Tabi was gone for longer than usual–Haylen suspected she might be repairing her suit while there was still daylight, but when her vacancy stretched on, Haylen thought she might at least go and see if Tabi needed anything.

Just as she was about to get up, though, Tabi emerged sans power armor, wearing her usual jeans and dark leather jacket. She offered Haylen a smile that was likely supposed to be reassuring, and seemed anything but. “I was just tinkering a bit with the suit.” she said by explanation of her absence, but added nothing onto it. Her sky-blue eyes were distracted and distant, and Haylen’s gut clenched with worry. Something was clearly wrong.

“Tabi, are you…all right?” Haylen asked as Tabi went around the table in the station’s main area, pulling the chair out before setting herself carefully down in it with a slight wince.

Again, a small grin. “Nothing that a few days of rest after we hit the Institute won’t cure.”

“So we _are_ attacking the Institute.” Haylen figured that had to be the reason for Tabi’s anxiety. “When?”

“I don’t know. Soon.” Tabi rubbed her face in one hand before retrieving an uneaten mutfruit from a plate sitting on the table and taking a solid bite out of it. “Within this week or soon after, I think.”

“Already?” Haylen’s brows shot up.

“Elder Maxson believes we shouldn’t give the Institute the chance to mobilize before we do, and I agree.” Tabi looked up but looked no less weary. “If we’re going to beat the Institute, we’ll have to take the fight to them on our terms.”

Haylen rested both her hands on one of Tabi’s, sitting on the table. She didn’t say anything, but Tabi didn’t seem to mind, letting out a breath and letting her shoulders slump along with it. Hunched at a table that wobbled with only three legs, with eyes that had more than a little dark shading underneath and conflict clear in her posture and expression, she didn’t look like someone about to make Commonwealth history–provided everything went according to plan.

She looked lost, and Haylen didn’t have a clue what to do.

“I love you, y’know?” the sentence came, spoken so quickly Haylen thought she must’ve misheard. She could already feel heat rising in her neck even as her brain struggled to catch up. When Haylen couldn’t gather the wherewithal to reply, Tabi buried her face in her other hand and said, muffled, “Shit. This was _not_ how I planned this.”

Haylen’s ability to speak finally caught up with her thoughts. “…you love me?”

Tabi removed her face from her hand and rested it on both of Haylen’s, which still covered her opposite hand. “I do, Hay.” Tabi looked equal parts terrified and hopeful, and the shaky smile on her face, the almost _shy_ look in her blue eyes, was what made Haylen believe it was true. “I really, really do. More every day, if that’s even possible.”

Haylen slowly removed her hands from Tabi’s before getting up and stepping to the other side of the table. She rested both hands on Tabi’s face, thumbs gently stroking her cheekbones as she rested her head upon Tabi’s. She lifted her face up long enough to press the lightest kiss to Tabi’s freckled forehead.

“I love you too, soldier girl, and you’d better not forget it.” Haylen managed to breathe out at last. “So you’d better come back from the Institute, all right? We haven’t made it this far to end things now. Promise me.”

Ordinarily, when Haylen told Tabi to make sure and come back, Tabi would smile and say she’d do her best. It always frightened Haylen, not because of the noncommittal answer itself, but because there really was no feasible way for Tabi to promise it, and she knew it–the Commonwealth was unforgiving at the best of times, and Tabi was strong, but her accident a few months ago had proven more than anything else that she was not invincible.

This time, though, Tabi’s long fingers curled around the back of Haylen’s neck, and the paladin whispered, “I promise.”

And despite the odds, despite the impossibility of the words, Haylen believed her.


End file.
